Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I can’t think of anything more tedious than proofing these scans. These, I say. I’m on the first one, fourth chapter. This isn’t like proofing in the old days when you’d go over your manuscript when it was finished or proof your galleys. Oh, no. You have to hit the backwards P in Word and the guts of the manuscript shows. This horror of proofing may only happen if you have your book scanned. If you’ve already got the manuscript typed in your computer it’s a matter of formatting and I don’t think you’d have this work.

I just realized if you hit the HTML Code tab in what you use to write your posts for your blog you see a similar thing. But the scanned page is much more annoying because of the way you have to format. Be aware that if you have your book scanned you’ll have this problem. Maybe you can afford to have someone else proof it, but I can’t.

I can’t because the money is mounting up. I’ve already paid to have three books scanned and I have at least five more to go, bought an up-to-date copy of Word and lets not forget about postage. And mostly lets not forget about the cover. The most important expenditure. I’m discovering.

That’s why I’m begging. If there’s anyone out there who wants to do my covers for experience and a credit please get in touch with me. sandrasc@optonline.net

Sunday, January 23, 2011

It wasn’t easy. The copy of Word that I got looked slightly different from the 2007 that I’d been using. The one I lost when my computer crashed. For instance, Tools had changed to options and it was in a strange place. Why?

Once everything was uninstalled and installed, my mentor, Consuelo, sent me the scans of my first book having made it into one long document. When I got it there were all the pages. No one document. Over the phone we went back and forth trying to get it into one document. We tried everything. At least we thought we had. And then suddenly I did something and it happened. I quickly saved it.

Now came the formatting. This took a long time to figure out. While Consuelo tried working on it on her own computer, I acquainted myself with the Word program. This helped a lot. She called me back and we began.

This may sound like nothing but it was over a period of about five hours. Now it’s ready for me to start proofing today or tomorrow. I’d like to start proofing right now, but life interferes.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Just as I thought, the package from Amazon was hanging from the mailbox. It was late in the day so I decided not to start anything until tomorrow. First thing I'll do is the uninstalling and the installing and hope that all goes well. No reason it shouldn't. Then I'll begin working on the first book: A CREATIVE KIND OF KILLER. Originally written under my pseudonym, Jack Early.

It's cold here. And windy. I live at the end of a long road. Sometimes trucks won't come down here. I doubt whether UPS will today. So no Word software.

But maybe I'll be lucky and they'll leave it hanging on the mailbox which is on the street. Sometimes they do that and say on their delivery pad that they've delivered it to the door. Let them lie, I say. As long as they leave it hanging on the mailbox I don't care about their morals.

I can track the package at Amazon and right now it's about an hour away.

If it arrives I'll uninstall the 2003 Word and install the new one. Then I can go back to being anxious or hysterical which ever is preferred. What time I get it will dictate the process. I think I won't begin actually working on the book until tomorrow.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Yesterday I got an email from the place that's scanning my books. It said that the 3 I sent were ready to be d/l. It also said:

1. Please be sure to unzip the file first before opening the contents of
the archive (we recommend using WinZip or 7zip, as the built-in Windows
utility sometimes has difficulty with multi-gigabyte files)
2. Please also be sure you have the latest service packs/updates
installed for Word.

I immediately started the d/l. It took a very long, long time even though at the start it said 39 minutes. I'd directed it to be saved on my desk top. When it finally got there there was nothing in it. My fault. I started over and this time I marked it to be saved in WinZip. It came in about 40 minutes and everything opened in the window of WinZip. I copied them all into a folder on my external drive. Also I put them on a CD RW and then I clicked on the first one. It opened in Word. But I have Word 2003. Once again not paying attention to the directions it looked odd. I realized I'd have to get Word 2007. On to Amazon to buy it.

The thing about the scan is that it's in page form when it has to be one long document to u/l it to Amazon. I didn't know how to get it into one document. I called my Guru today.

I sent her the doc of the shortest book as she requested. She found a way to make it into one long doc. But we're not sure it can work that way.

My software should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. When I find a way to make it one long doc I'll have to start proofing.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

I've started the process of putting ebooks up on Amazon. As I said I found a scanning place that is reasonable. Three of the books are there now. I'm not sure when I'll get the scans back (in email) but it should be fairly soon.

I've chosen to have them scanned the destructive way. This means they will tear them apart and I won't get them back. I didn't want to do this with my copies so I went on the Internet and found eight copies of the eight books I want to do this way. They were very cheap.

The first three are my Jack Early books. They'll say on the covers by Sandra Scoppettone writing as Jack Early. And speaking of covers I'm not sure what to do about them. I need a designer who'll do it for experience or very little money. So if you know anyone please let me know.

When I get the books back I'll have to proof them and that will take a bit of time. This won't be like my failed attempt at typing them. I don't think. I hope I won't start rewriting.

Once I do this I'll get help from my writer friend Consuelo Baehr http://www.setthiswriterfree.blogspot.com/ how to publish. I feel lucky that I have a mentor!

At this moment I'm looking forward to the process. Ask me in a week or two.